


Routine

by DarthUmbreon (SperoDeoVolente)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, M/M, Temporary Amnesia, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-13 23:59:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11196192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SperoDeoVolente/pseuds/DarthUmbreon
Summary: Soldier 76 lives in a city that repeats the same week. Everything is the same until one day he spots a person he doesn't recognize, but feels like he should.





	1. 76 Spots a New Face

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SoraMora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoraMora/gifts).



Pain causes Soldier 76 to detour from his routine. A feeling, like an ache in his bones before a storm, causes him to deviate from the plan. Normally he’ll turn left on 2nd. Visor scans the horizon for trouble every five minutes. Nothing shows up as abnormal.  _ Hmm. The trouble must be further off route than I anticipated!  _ That ache in his bones just worsens. Something is off, he can feel it. Like the old sailors who can predict storms by pain, 76 predicts trouble. Best to go off route, find the trouble, kill it, go back on route. That’s the plan. 

 

Teeth grind in annoyance. Nothing shows up as unusual on his visor despite his running another scan. 76 has run this particular route since R205. Like always, he starts at Oak and 2nd, then he goes East 2nd down to Birch. Finally ends his circuit, a grand total of one hundred and fifty miles zig zagging through narrow city streets, at Birch and 102nd. This long loop allows him to prevent twenty-threes deaths on Tuesday June 13th. Tomorrow if he runs a different route he saves fifteen lives on June 14th. Each day has a set route to save lives. Not that he can save them all, no, that feat is impossible. Time travel is possible, but saving everyone isn’t. 76 hates that fact. 

 

The week of June 12th through June 18th, has repeated itself in the city of Noir. Why 76 is stuck in a city that has a time loop he doesn’t know. Around R12 he started keeping a log of events. Like a diary, only not girly. A log for events. 76 loathingly calls this week in a time loops a Repeat. Each Repeat ends on Sunday with a cataclysmic explosion. Everyone dies in this massive explosion on June 18th, including 76. Only he remembers all that happens when he wakes up on Monday June 12th. No one else remembers. For his sanity, he carefully logs everything that happens right before the explosion. That way he can optimize a plan of attack to save as many lives as possible. To have a purpose is how he stays grounded as the years go by. This week will be different, he’s gone off route. There will be far fewer lives alive because of this trouble. He will kill it. 

 

Currently on R5341, he can say with pride 76 can save one hundred and five people, thirty dogs, twenty-one cats, five hamsters, and two birds from dying in a single Repeat. After watching people die the same way over and over, he’s mastered the art of preventing this. Not that it matters much, everyone dies on Sunday. It’s his hope that someday the loop will end, and those lives he saves will survive to June 19th. In total the number of people he can't save is five hundred and fifty-two before Sunday. Noir is a large city, and has exactly three hundred thousand, five hundred, and sixty three people living in it. As fast as he runs, he can't reach them all in time. It's less painful to save as many as he can before the Repeat. This Repeat, however, will have a different number of people still alive at the end. He hates that he’ll save fewer people this Repeat. Means he’s losing his edge, getting  _ old. _

 

Near the intersection of Willow and 5th is something new. Not something, someone. A new face. That's impossible. Not once in the 5341 repeated weeks he's been here has there been a new person! Soldier 76 recognizes everyone. Not the guy in black. That is a face he doesn’t know. Carefully he approaches the new person. Curiosity wars with caution. Fingers move over and rest lightly on the trigger of his pulse rifle. Behind his visor, blue eyes study the stranger. He’s got dark skin, brown eyes, several scars on his face, a well worn black beanie on his head, and is roughly the same height as 76. The man is dressed in all black, a hoody with some sort of logo, black pants, black boots, everything he wears is black. Any other colors is just from shotgun shells in his belt, and some ominous looking logo. 76 isn’t certain what to think, so he settles for his original thought - the new guy is trouble. However, he doesn’t done anything yet, so just killing him right now isn’t acceptable. Best get answers, then kill him if need be. 

 

It feels like he should somehow know that person. Shoulders stiffening at the intruder, he stalks over to him. Guy wearing black is busy checking something on a smartphone. Advanced technology, a model of phone 76 doesn’t recognize. Unease fills him, and a headache starts pounding. His left temple hurts a lot. Like always, he ignores the pain. Headaches are common, this guy is not.  

 

Always the headaches start at his left temple, then spread outwards. He has an old head wound there, lots of scarring over his left temple that results in headaches. Now he knows why he feels compelled to go off route. His gut is warning him about the new guy. New things are trouble. How much trouble will this guy be?

  
“What are you doing here.” 76 doesn't phase it as a question. It's a demand. This is his town and troublesome punks are not welcome. The guy dressed in all black ignores him. 76 growls and tries again. He’s not liking the guy in black ignoring him one bit. “I’m speaking to you punk. What are you doing here.”

  
“None of your business old man.” The new guy just dismisses him with a smirk and wave of his hand. 76 is startled at how charming he finds that smirk to be. That just annoys him, he isn’t here to be attracted to trouble. Not to mention the guy looks to be in his thirties, 76 looks to be in his late sixties. Not to the mention the hundred and some odd years he’s been stuck here. Far too old for this young man. How did he get in here? Best get answers right away. At the sight of 76’s large pulse rifle leveling at his head at point blank range gets 76 a marginally more informative answer. “Just looking for my husband. That pinche idiota got himself lost in here.” 

  
“I know everyone and everything that lives in here. If he's here I'll know where he is.” 76 wants the stranger gone. There's a headache building. It’s a bad one, there’s lights dancing in his vision now. A loud buzzing seems to drowning out most sounds. Thankfully his visor helps manage these symptoms. But he’ll need to cut this conversation short soon before he collapses.

 

“I don’t need your help old man.” The young man tells him, before walking away. 76 is in too much pain to follow him. Best try to talk to him next Repeat, if the guy survives. 


	2. 76 Finds the New Face Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are not going as planned for 76.

76 is not happy. After his encounter with the stranger, he didn’t save anyone that day. Unable to continue with his route, he goes home. There’s nothing in his apartment but the basics he needs and his log. Carefully noting the exact location and time of the encounter, 76 reads over his old logs. It takes all day, and he finds no mention of the stranger. He feels like he should recognize him! There’s no strangers to him in this place. With a grunt, he puts away his log. Dinner is simple, just some MREs. He has enough to last him a week. No need to cook or go shopping. MREs have everything he needs. What he does need is a shower. In the shower, hot water pounding away on his, 76 decides saving people can wait. He’s going to find out who that guy is. Nothing ever changes, finding out how the guy got in means he might be able to find a way out. 

 

After what seems like hours of just thinking about the guy in black, whom 76 affectionately names ‘Trouble’, he drifts off to sleep. As his alarm goes off at 5:05, he rolls out of bed. Doesn’t take long to get dressed, 76 always wears the same outfit. Jeans, shirt, and his favorite 76 jacket. One hand grabs an MRE, the other grabs his pulse rifle. Then he’s out the door. Despite his best efforts, he doesn’t find Trouble on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, or Sunday. As the world catches on fire Sunday, the familiar wall of pain and death rushing towards the apartment 76 stays in, he hopes Trouble is okay. 

 

On R5342, 76 wakes up. Hands check is his body for injuries. It’s habit to see if anything other than memories roll over from Sunday. The last few moments of Sunday June 18th go by as his body melts from the heat of the explosion. Everyone dies painfully, then wakes up back on Monday as if nothing happened. Thankfully no one else remembers this special hell. 76 would not wish this on his worse enemy. Not that he has any, but if he did, he wouldn’t wish it upon them. His fingers pause on the wounds near his left temple. It seems like the scarring is bit larger this time. He’s never recorded the amount of scarring. 76 doesn’t remember how he got the scar. Not that alarms him. 76 doesn’t remember anything beyond the Repeats. What his life is life before June 12th is a mystery. Everyone else here remembers their past perfectly. Instead they are not aware of the Repeat. At times, when he’s feeling lonely, 76 wishes he too were the like others. Unaware of the hell they’re in, happily living out their lives full memories intact. Still, he’s certain the scars on his left temple were less. Carefully he logs this change. Visor goes on, and he heads out the door. 

 

There is no sign of Trouble on Monday, but 76 does spot him reading through something on a tablet on Tuesday. He spots his target outside of a Lar’s Deli on Maple and 5th. Without preamble he heads straight for Trouble. Unlike before, his pulse rifle isn’t aimed at the guy. No, he wants answers. He may not get them if he shoots the guy.  

 

“What are you doing here.” 76’s voice is not as harsh as before, but it’s still a demand. Unlike last time, his pulse rifle is slung over his shoulder. 

 

“I’m looking for my husband. Pinche idiota is here someplace. Got himself into trouble the moment I wasn’t watching his back. He’s shit at watching his left side from attacks.” Trouble doesn’t look up for his tablet. Instead he frowns at something he sees on it. Then he pockets it, and glares at 76. “Fuck off old man. He needs me, I can’t waste time on you.”

 

“Who is your husband?” 76 inquires, curiosity rising above the headache. _. _ Looks like Trouble survives AND remembers! That means he’s like 76, but is he trapped here too? Or can he escape? That’s what he needs to find out.  _ Lucky bastard to married to someone who can get into a Repeat! I wish I had someone to watch my back! Maybe I’d home instead of here if that were the case. _

 

“Didn’t you hear me? I said fuck off. I don’t have time for norms like you!” Trouble grows the words, frustrated by something. Then he dashes off again without answering the question. 

 

76 watches him go. Shoulders slump slightly. His pulse rifle is heavy on his back for the first time since he’s had it. Best try his luck tomorrow. Currently his head is feels like it might split open from the pain. With a sigh, 76 heads back home. As he walks up the long stairwell to his apartment on the top floor, he thinks about what’s happening. Someone else is who is aware of the Repeats is here. He’s not alone. Maybe if he finds out more about Trouble’s friend, he can find answers. He unlocks his apartment. Silence greets him as always. Head pounding, 76 downs some painkillers and starts eating his MRE. Meticulously he goes through the log. He’s recorded all he has learned about the natives here. No one mentions anyone like Trouble. All night he checks, and double checks, the logs. Nothing! It’s not until well into the next day that he gives up on finding out who Trouble’s friend is through the logs. He’ll just have to get answers from Trouble himself!

 

All that day, and into the following days, 76 searches for Trouble. There is no sign of the young man. Not even a hint of all that black in the sea of people who live here. It’s not until Sunday, a mere thirty minutes before the explosion, that he spots his target. Trouble is drinking coffee from a local place, eyes still riveted to his tablet. Looks like Trouble hasn’t been sleeping. 

 

“No luck finding your husband?” 76 asks gruffly, not happy at how hard it is to find someone so startlingly handsome. He’d think someone that striking would be easy to spot. 

 

“No.” Trouble doesn’t look up. Doesn’t provide anymore information. Just glares at his screen like it’s lying to him. “Why do you insist on bothering me?”

 

“Why do you insist on looking for your husband?” 76 counters the sour question with one of his own.

 

“Because he’s here someplace, playing games with me. He’s always getting into trouble just to piss me off.” Trouble growls the reply, one of his hands balling into a fist.

 

“Then he’s not much of a husband. Perhaps it’s best if he’s lost if he can’t take your wedding vows seriously..” 76 replies, wondering what’s going on. That headache is starting up again. He ignores it. Maybe if he pushes Trouble, he’ll get answers. Asking nicely didn’t work, maybe insulting the husband will push him into giving up more information.

 

“Shut up! You have no idea what you’re talking about old man! Jack is my best friend and husband! Don’t you dare insult him.” Trouble snaps his gaze from the tablet and glares at 76.

 

“If he’s your best friend and husband why is he playing games instead of being by your side?” 76 notes the name, Jack. At hearing it, his headache spikes in intensity. Pressure squeezes his skull, causing him to wish the Repeat would happen sooner.

 

“I don’t know! He has to be playing games otherwise…” Trouble trails off, realizing what is happening. “You’re doing this on purpose. Sly older fucker aren’t you?” 

 

“I’m old. I don’t have time to waste on you being difficult. I want answers, you want answers. Perhaps if we work together, we can both get what we want, hm? I do know everyone in this city.” 76 holds out a hand to Trouble. “Soldier 76.”

 

“Gabriel Reyes.” Gabriel looks at 76’s hand thoughtful. It takes a long moment before he reaches out and shakes it. “Have you seen Jack Reyes-Morrison?”

 

76 studies the picture Gabriel shows him on the tablet. It’s of a young man, roughly Gabriel’s age. Blonde hair, blue eyes, large muscular body, bright smile, dressed in a sharp looking blue uniform. Blondie looks like he should be on a poster. Headache growing, those bright lights, come back in force. All 76 can do is shake his head. The Repeat is about to happen soon.

 

“Damn it. I knew you wouldn’t be of any help. Not like it matters.” Gabriel spits into the dirt, and checks his watch.

 

“I don’t suppose we could set up a meeting place? I would like to continue this conversation, but the Repeat is about to happen.” 76’s head hurts so bad. Pressure on the inside of his skull just grows until he can’t even see, not even with the visor giving a direct feed into his brain.

 

“Wait, what do you mean?” Gabriel pauses and just stares at 76.

 

“You know what I mean. The Repeat. When the explosion happens and everything starts over again on Monday.” 76 turns slightly to face the wall of light and pain racing towards them. Gabriel is shouting something, trying to reach for him. Sadly, the explosion is happening. Hopefully he can find Gabriel sooner next Repeat. “Times up. See you next time.”


	3. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 76 wakes up to a stranger in his apartment and his gets his ass kicked.

76 jolts awake. Everything is dark. His fingers start his search for new wounds. Last Repeat the scars on his left temple were larger. Lightly his fingers trace his head. There are more scars! He rolls out of bed, hand reaching for his alarm clock. He’s never slept through it, but it’ll go off at 6:00 if he doesn’t turn it off. Hands find his outfit in the dark, and he gets dressed. Eyes blinking out the sleep, he stumbles into the kitchen. Light turns on, and he pauses. Gabriel Reyes is sitting at his kitchen table. That’s unexpected. Blue eyes meet brown for a long moment. Those brown eyes look him up and down, and narrow at the sight of the scars on his left temple. 

 

“Don’t worry Jack, I’ll have you free in a moment.” Gabriel gives 76 a cruel smile, before leaping at him. Large body easily jumps out of the chair, hands pushing down on the table for more leverage to get airborne. 76 is fast, but not fast enough to escape. Gabriel lands on him.

 

Both of them tumble to the floor. 76 tries to wiggle free, but Gabriel is surprising strong. Then the punches start, blow after blow on the right side of his temple. Stars and lights dance in his vision. What looks like to be a large knife appears in one of Gabriel’s hands. He raises it slightly before ramming into Jack’s left temple. He screams in pain, but the voice isn’t his. Again that pressure is back as blood pours down his head. Gabriel digs his fingers into 76’s skull, reaching in. Pain is all 76 knows, his voice continuing to scream. There’s a pressure, then it’s gone. Head feeling several pounds lightly, Jack smiles.  _ Took you long enough Gabi... _ With that knowledges comes blessed darkness.

 

“Sombra! I’ve got the brain slug out of Jack.” Gabriel looks at the foot long, grey slug in his right hand. It’s wiggling weakly, already dying without a host. Jack’s bleeding badly, but his enhancements are already sealing the wound. What’s worrisome is the world falling apart. Already the furniture is decaying into dust. No one who isn’t a member of Overwatch is dead. The unfortunate citizens died over a century ago when the brain slug got Jack. Without the slug controlling Jack’s Time Traveling abilities, the pocket of time it’s made is collapsing. “I need you to stabilize the temporal gate while I get Jack out of here.”

 

“I’m opening a gate at your location now. Dr. Ziegler and Jesse are waiting at the other end.” Gabriel sighs with relief. He rolls off Jack, looking him over. Quickly he heaves Jack over his shoulders in a fireman style carry. A blue oval appears to his right. He walks through it, Jack with him. 

 

It’s hard to believe that a Brain Slug got his husband! Then again, after their fight… Jack ran off to think. He didn’t have Gabriel there to watch his back. Thankfully, the effects of the Brain Slug feasting off Jack can be reserved. Angela will put Jack in tube, work her abilities, and Jack will go back to his proper age. When he came into the bubble of repeated time, he knew something had gotten Jack. He hadn’t thought it would something as nasty as Brain Slug. The things latch onto the brains of Time Travelers. Slowly eat at their ability to control time, so they age. Thankfully, Angela can work miracles. As he steps through the portal, the people who can repair Jack are waiting. Now he can finally set things right. 


End file.
